ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

honestly i only heard the whole thing once and then kept listening to glacier... sorry, i promise to revisit the whole thing.

http://i.imgur.com/rgeKv3a.jpg?1

58 RHYE Woman (324 points, 14 votes)

Spotify

Nice album. Think ILM will be the only place that has the Quadron album higher.

At a glance (not really following the thread closely), this list seems far more varied and interesting than the tracks one. I say that knowing that I probably wouldn't like a great deal of these albums.

i hope 2013 was the high point for all this revival r&b, alt-r&b, lex-r&b, etc. such boring, so sleepy.

donato album is sweet.

I will do a full rundown later after giving every album a good listen, but for those who've been understandably avoiding my special thread, yesterday's albums were largely fucken awesome, surprisingly so

(and some of the lex rnb was what made yesterday so great)

xxxpost don't wanna complain just yet, but i'm a bit disappointed by this rundown so far. i usually enjoy the albums countdown much more than the tracks poll but this year hasn't thrown up too many surprises and there are a lot of albums i think just 'hey, this is okay, it's an album, it does the job' (the Rhye album being one example), but without getting too excited. Surprised John Grant didn't place higher though as we're still in the lower rungs of the poll. This could (and will) all change as we move up the ranks of course, so it's not a complaint so much as an observation.

My tolerance for endless sleepy R+B albums is almost up to my tolerance for endless space rock albums, but still I listened to Woman about twice and never revisited.

I think John Grant has a small following on ILM that is very passionate and vocal about him but there was relatively little wider impact. Amazing album, incredible voice.

The Donato Dozzy was my late discovery of last year, I love how it's essentially the same track viewed from totally different angles but it never feels repetitive in one listen. The original Bee Mask Vaporwave is glorious too.

Can't be arsed with Rhye at all.

http://i.imgur.com/8sOFUcL.jpg?1

57 YOUNG GALAXY Ultramarine (327 points, 15 votes)

Spotify

The first three tracks on Rhye were enjoyable, but any more and I started feeling a bit down in the dumps. Think it would work really well if I'm hungover, but it might depress me. I liked track three the best, Last Dance.

i got really into vaporware at some pt bc of that sebastian thread. so much cool stuff going on there.

Pretty Boy off the tracks list was pretty good. Is the rest of the album like that?

there is a surgeon remix of bee mask that is great too, massive lava flow techno

young galaxy! nice to see it place - had felt v guilty about this slipping off the end of my ballot but not voting for them in trax either. really good album, hadn't liked their previous but this was so pretty and really lived up to the idea of dan lissvik producing dream pop.

and now is the time for the stand-out track "new summer" to get its shine. incredible track, like a balearic taylor swift. "so meet me by the river, let's go for a ride / with the windows down and the stereo loud" >>>>>>>>>>

Didn't get round to listening to this Young Galaxy album. I listened to Shapeshifting a couple of times when it came out but couldn't really get into it. How does this one compare?

def a better and more accessible album than shapeshifting (which i love)

i also didn't get into shapeshifting but really loved this one

"Pretty Boy", "New Summer" (though some of the lyrics here are distractingly on-the-nose imo), "Out The Gate Backwards" probably all you need from this album.

though some of the lyrics here are distractingly on-the-nose imo

e.g. the bit about waiting for the drop always annoys me for some reason

i also really like the incantatory weird-folkiness of "in fire" and "fever"

Think I'll give it a go. It seems like the kind of thing I should love.

Listening to the John Grant album now, nice, very unusual point of view/presentation. The immediate point of reference that comes to mind is The Aluminum Group.

In a nearby, slightly-rockier ballpark I thought the Still Corners album was super slept-on this year.

ah yeah this new summer track is awesome

is anyone (mostly dan) gonna get mad at me if i say the john grant album evokes, like, a goofy version of xiu xiu?

I can't think of a phrase more likely to make me reject a piece of music than "balearic taylor swift" but despite that I am looking forward to listening to the Young Galaxy album

New Summer is incredible, I can leave the rest.

http://i.imgur.com/rMGhn16.jpg?1

56 KA The Night's Gambit (330 points, 13 votes)

Spotify

i also dig "fall for you" on young galaxy but yeah 'new summer' is prob the #1 standout

Dunno this one

the ka album seemed great but ultimately i didn't get to spend enough time with it to give it a vote

is anyone (mostly dan) gonna get mad at me if i say the john grant album evokes, like, a goofy version of xiu xiu?

wait waht

Great album if you're into depressing rap music like me.

hmmm... again i don't wanna complain but there are so many entries on this list that are 'nice enough but a bit boring after a while'. lots of sleepy one-tone music. things had better start kicking a bit more arse in a mo.

For someone who doesn't want to complain, you sure are complaining a lot.

Murky, noirish, old-man hip-hop. I was impressed by it more than I actually enjoyed it.

xpost hah, got me.

love the sound and mood on the ka album, he's a great storyteller, liked how concise it is, totally admire it for being about as good an example of classicist NYC rap as you'll find right now but it's not quite my style enough for me to personally listen to a lot. "peace akhi" was really good, works really well as an album though

ka is awesome but v minor on first listen, needs (deserves) repeat listens imo.

couple standouts:

Peace Akhi
http://youtu.be/OOTdy_vpFIA
Our Father
http://youtu.be/tgsm-paBJJc

I like this one and am hoping that voters also went went for Roc Marciano who released two great albums of a very similar style.

Filling my ignorance vacuum admirably, dl ;)

i don't wanna complain but there are so many entries on this list that are 'nice enough but a bit boring after a while'.

there's quite a bit of stuff that isn't like this as well. it's a really diverse, strong list so far imo

is anyone (mostly dan) gonna get mad at me if i say the john grant album evokes, like, a goofy version of xiu xiu?

wait waht

― SHAUN (DJP), Tuesday, January 28, 2014 11:24 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol the rich singing voice, direct and personal lyrics, and tendency toward arrangements that contrast with the lyrical content. this guy has more of a sense of humor though.

I mean maybe my impression of Xiu Xiu is skewed because the only song I know of is "Support Our Troops" but I feel like you'd have to be approaching Weird Al in order to be the goofy version of Xiu Xiu

I voted, but have no idea what I put down anymore... Trying to figure out what I would get excited about...

thought this was a pretty convincing five-star review of the ka album from last year: http://www.factmag.com/2013/07/26/ka-the-nights-gambit/

Oh, the DJ Q ILM mix! I would like to see that place.

Cold Facts might be this dude's best track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKlCUHjU7p4